Bill Gates believes it's important for the U.S. to have an honest discussion about the privacy vs security debate sweeping Silicon Valley and Washington D.C. in the wake of Apple's battle with the FBI.

On Tuesday, The Financial Times published an interview with Gates musing almost philosophically that in particular cases it may be appropriate for technology companies to give law enforcement access to data. The comments prompted a flurry of headlines saying Bill Gates "backs" the FBI rather than Apple.

The Microsoft founder and former CEO later said he was "disappointed" by that framing of his remarks in a followup interview on Tuesday — then proceeded to hedge his responses all over again.

Gates' waffling and vagueness on this issue highlight the broader discomfort and tensions that technology execs are now confronting when debating how to weigh in on Apple's refusal to help the FBI unlock information on the iPhone 5c belonging to one of the gunmen behind last year's mass shooting in San Bernardino.

Like his peers, Gates and the company he founded must simultaneously straddle the interests of the technology industry and its most privacy-conscious consumers. They also have to respect the interest of the government, with whom they frequently work closely.

In the post-Snowden era, few tech companies want to be seen as being pawns of government overreach.

At the same time, these companies have crucial business and legislative relationships forged with lawmakers and government agencies, including the Department of Defense.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the philanthropy private organization he founded after stepping down as CEO of Microsoft, has hired numerous former political officials and has worked closely with government groups like the National Science Foundation, U.S. Agency for International Development and the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for Aids Relief.

Microsoft, the business that made Gates the wealthiest individual in the world, is actively marketing its products and services to the U.S. government and has lucrative sales deals with agencies like the U.S. Department of Defense.

It's telling that Microsoft and its current CEO Satya Nadella have refrained from commenting directly on the Apple case. Microsoft instead pointed readers to a hedged statement on the issue from an advocacy group to which it belongs.

Nadella retweeted that statement from his own account — followed by another tweet gloating over the sales deal with the Pentagon.

This delicate dance has been repeated by other big name technology companies.

Google stayed silent for more than 12 hours before its CEO finally put out an extremely carefully worded statement saying the FBI's request "could be a troubling precedent" while simultaneously stressing that it works with law enforcement when legally required to do so.

5/5 Looking forward to a thoughtful and open discussion on this important issue

Facebook waited even longer to weigh in on the matter with a stronger statement about it potentially creating a "chilling precedent." But a few days later, its CEO and cofounder Mark Zuckerberg spoke publicly about the issue for the first time, appearing to hedge more.

“I’m sympathetic with Apple, and encryption should not be blocked," Zuckerberg said at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on Monday. Then came the but. "But we have a big responsibility to prevent terrorism, and we want to help the governments prevent terrorism.”

Facebook's board of directors is made of individuals like Peter Thiel, a famed venture capitalist and founder of Palantir, a high-powered data analysis tool shopped out to the government sector.

To make matters more complicated, it's likely some of these companies are facing similar legal issues of their own, which restrict what they can say.

"Frankly, I suspect they all have court cases going and can’t be seen to comment in a way that could be seen as a comment on their own cases," Fatemeh Khatibloo, an analyst with Forrester Research who focuses on privacy and consumer data issues, told Mashable in an earlier interview.

A scattered few technology execs have spoken up more loudly and directly in Apple's favor in recent days, including Twitter and Square CEO Jack Dorsey, WhatsApp founder Jan Koum and Box CEO Aaron Levie.

It's unclear at the moment, however, whether this directness is actually the smartest public relations move.

http://www.apple.com/customer-letter/ - I have always admired Tim Cook for his stance on privacy and Apple's efforts to...

The public remains split on who to support in the ongoing debate, with the majority of Americans (51%) saying Apple should unlock the iPhone to help authorities with their case, according to a survey released this week by the Pew Research Center.

If that survey proves anything, it's that other technology execs may end up feeling "disappointed" like Gates to have media claim they backed the FBI over Apple or vice versa. They have too many people interested in their words, which means they will keep trying to be circumspect.

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